


Quite The Match

by Val_Creative



Series: Warlock & His Dollophead [23]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Past Abuse, Romance, Strippers & Strip Clubs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 07:15:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1679519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ex-aerialist and the ex-stripper. Arthur thinks the universe is laughing at them. It may just be that dolt Merlin laughing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quite The Match

**Author's Note:**

> (A very special thank you to my friends on Skype who encouraged this on, even when I was whining, and The Merlin Family as well as The Warlock and His King Network on Tumblr for being a wonderfully excitable bunch ❤ ❤ ❤ )
> 
> Arthur's occupation inspired by a lovely drawing/headcanon by [Hanni](http://hannijar.tumblr.com) and with her permission, it was introduced into the fic. 
> 
>  
> 
> Day #23: "trying new position"

*

 

What would a normal hot-blooded man do… when black patent high-heel pushed against the side of his face, turning him the object of his attention—a gorgeous, masked dancer?

The mask was a little strange, admittedly. None of the other girls… or dancers at the strip club usually bothered to hide their faces. This kind of work didn't necessitate shame. Or modesty. As far as Arthur Pendragon knew, and he __knew__ about the performance scene. Very well. But that's [another story for another time](http://hannijar.tumblr.com/post/79345956558/aerialist-arthur-for-rie-cause-idk-we-were).

The lean, did he mention __gorgeous__ , dancer with a high heel on his cheek started mouthing the lyrics to the next techno-beat song. " _I know you want me_ ," those pale, shine-glossed lips indicated. A slip of pink tongue jutting out between those lush lips. " _I've made it obvious that I want you too_."

Arthur focused up again, on that decorative mask and the eyes veiled away from him.

The mask was black except for the red metal trimmings around it, and what they called a 'half mask'—meaning it only covered the top half of the nose and around the eyes, but not the cheekbones. He vaguely was reminded of the ballroom scene from that Jim Henson movie " _Labyrinth_ "… did anyone else remember that movie…?

"Am I boring you?"

Arthur felt the high heel move away, as the dancer asked this over the pounding of the music.

He blinked. Arthur shook his head, hands twitching.

"… I'm sorry— _er_ , I mean… no."

"No need." The dancer leaned over a bit, smirking— _yes_ , he was male and Arthur didn't feel brokenhearted about it this at all. "I go by Robin with the patrons. My stage name."

"Of course, because of the red shirt… suppose it's very clever…" Arthur then laughed nervously.

A musing noise.

"Can't really call it a shirt, can you?" To prove his point, Robin spun around a moment, looking down at himself on the platform. Indeed. The shirt was cut off at the waist, arcing into an upside-down V almost to his prominent ribcage. The short sleeves were black and mesh. The back entirely made of red mesh.

And Arthur didn't notice it before, but a small loop of platinum flashed on Robin's belly button. _Bugger_.

Somewhere off stage, a burly name started yelling angrily in their direction. Arthur didn't recognize him as the bouncer, but Robin's mouth twisted up with dislike.

"Been spending too much time in one place. Wonder how much Hengist will deduct this time…" He glanced back at Arthur, pensively. "Are you sticking around?"

"Um…"

He lost Leon and Kara somewhere in the crowd. Probably at the bar. Arthur got the feeling Leon tagged along with them out of rubbish friendship obligation and Kara must have been _furious_ that she had been invited to a surprise 'Ladies Night' and robbed of her first experience clubbing with hot women.

"You should stick around." Robin then added gleefully, and if Arthur didn't know any better he would have mistaken him for being younger than twenty, "…what's the saying…? …All good things come to those who wait…"

"I'll consider it."

"I hope so. For a prat, you're not the worst one I've ever encountered."

" _Hhm_ …" A little dreamy-eyed, Arthur watched him return to the bigger platform with the rest of the dancers. His black, silky gloves a contrast to the length of his pale arms. That shimmery ass in tight, miniature shorts grinding against one of the free poles as the randy women and a handful of men crowded below and drooled.

Arthur then let the prat comment filter in, snubbed.

"— _Oi!_ "

 

*

 

The evening was turning out to be _interesting_ , in a non-generalized way.

Well, mostly it was interesting in how it turned into " _oh-jesus-where-are-the-half-naked-women_ " to " _I-think-this-masked-and-pretty-bloke-was-flirting-with-me-and-I-was-flirting-back-oh_ ".

Speaking of, Arthur hadn't seen Robin (or whoever he actually was) on the bigger stage platform in a good hour. Maybe longer. In the gyrating sea of well-oiled and fake baked muscles, he had been swallowed up in the chaos and disappeared, even with noticeable shade of red to his costume.

Before he could rack his brain for that answer, Arthur's eyes drifted over to another dancer. He stood on a small, round platform on the far left, a hand wrapped solidly to a pole. Wide-set blue eyes. He wore a skin-tight pleather bodysuit, as dark as his hair pushed back from his forehead with a glittery, steel-colored headband. His asymmetrical maroon-colored scarf dangling around his neck also dangled out of the reaches of one or two women who called out eagerly and possibly drunk.

"That's Wiccan. Stage name, too. He's really popular during Ladies Night." Arthur glanced over at the speaker who dropped into the plushy chair next to his, elbows to the crusty tabletop. "He's got a way of pulling people in without saying much," he said, chuckling. A very tinted aviator sunglasses on his boyish face ( _it was dark enough in the club, sheesh_ ).

"That's… I see…" Arthur said, cautiously, sipping on his glass of Jack Daniels and nasty-tasting ice.

"Kind of like a love spell? Geddit?"

Robin's smile was so ridiculously wide that Arthur had to snort aloud. Magic, oh _please_.

"I'm guessing you didn't grow up on comic books?"

"Not hardly."

And… wait, _Robin_?

Ignoring the outright shocked expression, Robin's face turned to Arthur, his elbows sliding away.

He said, tugging on his violet-colored hoodie and black jacket, "You stayed."

"Um…" _Words. Find them._ "My friends are still—"

A shrill, enraged cry from behind him. Arthur's spine froze in place. " _There you are, you bastard_!"

Oh.

Oh shit.

Kara grabbed the back of Arthur's collar and pulled hard, her teeth baring in an scowl. He flailed a moment, panicked as his air circulation was lost.

"What the _HELL_ are you playing at, Pendragon?"

"Kara, fucking hell!" Arthur disengaged her hand and glared. "What are you doing?"

She glared back with equal venom. "I came with you to see _tets_ , not goddamn pricks in my face everywhere! This isn't what I signed up for!"

Her eyes cut over to Robin who looked between them, giggling behind his hand at them.

"Oh, okay," Kara said, rolling her eyes. "I can see why you'd come to _prick_ night, it's not a well-kept secret—but _robbing cradles_ now, too? You are truly a sick fuck."

Robin's features scrunched up in displeasure.

"What the _hell_?"

Arthur felt like smacking his head on the table. Repeatedly. Even with the questionable crusties.

"For the love of… god, where is Mordred?" he asked, lowly. Mordred was closer to Kara than him, and knew exactly how placate her.

" _Left_. He was the smart one."

"… Is everyone okay here?" A cute waitress in a uniform dress and black smock approached their table, looking concerned. Kara's expression lifted.

Robin made a complete 180, smiling cheerfully at her. "Everything's good, Sefa."

She smiled back, relieved. Sefa blushed as Kara licked her lips absently. "I'll… go back to serving."

"That's a good friend Sefa. She's just been hired," Robin informed them when she left, and Kara who oogled slightly after the uniform skirt hem. "It's her third night. Whatever she lacks in service skills, she makes up in enthusiasm." And his cheer faded a little as the sounds of crashing glasses rang out and apologetic squeaking.

"Maybe the night's not a complete loss."

Kara adjusted her breasts in her low-cut top, before walking off, bending down where Sefa was to help her clean up the broken mess.

"Is she trouble?" Robin asked, turning his head after her.

"No," Arthur said. "She just like girls."

"And you? You like girls?

A flutter of pleasant heat crawled up Arthur's stomach at the sly grin.

"Not presently, no."

"Good…" Robin suddenly was leaning forward in the plushy chair, almost nose-to-nose with Arthur. His breath smelled _sweet_ … like… _fruity gum_. "Are you free tonight?"

 

*

 

Arthur visited his Mum for his thirtieth birthday. Merlin gave him a long goodbye kiss and went back to studying for exams.

 _Merlin_ , not Robin.

It felt like a lifetime ago since they agreed to move in together, and Merlin flipped off the club owner Hengist, storming out his things from his dressing room and Sefa with him. He had been afraid of what would happen to Sefa. Hengist was notorious for abusing those he deemed _weaker_ than him, but no one ever came forward, or had substantial proof.

Except for Merlin's left eye.

"Doesn't hurt anymore," he had whispered, softly. The first time Arthur's fingertips had trembled around the puffy, raised skin containing a mottled white iris.

He was completely blind in it.

Merlin never left to go anywhere without sunglasses or a colored eye-contact. One eye always seeming bluer than the other.

"I should just get two golden ones, what do you think? Would liven things up a bit around here," Merlin would tease, with a different color scheme in mind each time Arthur got that face. That sympathetic face on him Merlin wasn't too fond of. He hated being told how _sorry_ , how _awful_ , how _unfair_ it was from someone who didn't understand at all.

Ygraine often listened to Arthur's frustrations, strolling through the corridors of the estate.

"He knows you love him," she said, patiently. Ygraine touched the side of Arthur's face, beaming. "My son, the ex-aerialist, and his darling partner."

"The ex-stripper," Arthur said, listlessly. "Quite the match."

"Merlin's not a _stripper_ , love."

Arthur nodded, taking a drink out of his champagne. " _Ex_ -stripper, I've said that."

Ygraine patted his cheek sharply, disapprovingly.

"Merlin's very brave to have been through what he has," she told him, leaving him for the ornate, gilded side-table.

"I understand that." Arthur's throat seized up, as he inhaled. "I wouldn't have him any other way—what is that?" Arthur frowned as his mother handed him a wrapped gift.

"A _birthday_ present, or did you forget why you were here?"

He resisted a childish pout. Grown men didn't pout. Except for Merlin—but Merlin was like a child himself, with a greedy appetite for sweets, his midnight-showing cinema tickets to The Hobbit that he dragged Arthur to, his DC and Marvel posters of beefy superheros littering the interior of their closet.

Arthur's fingers took apart the silky, white bow, and ripped open the wrapping.

" _Mother_!" he gaped down at the book in his hands, sputtering. "This— _this_ —!"

She burst out laughing, clasping Arthur's dismayed face and pressing her lips to his cheek.

"Now stop that. Put it to good use."

Ygraine thumped a hand over the newly bound copy of Kama Sutra.

 

*

 

Merlin had the very same reaction—laughing at Arthur's face. But he wasn't laughing now, mouth slack, toes rocking, scooting over Arthur's upraised torso.

Arthur was starting to believe he was out of practice in flexibility, tendons and muscles burning.

It was a damn good thing Merlin was so light.

They found a page about ' _bridging_ ' and Arthur volunteered as the person beneath, contorting himself backwards to the bedroom floor. His dick plunging slowly into Merlin. Merlin's continuous whines and babbles kept him from going soft, distracted by the athletic position. Though Arthur wished he could have seen Merlin's struggling to keep upright.

"Can't come, like, this," Merlin begged from above, grappling with Arthur's lightly haired thighs. "Arthur, gotta stop."

Arthur groaned out his agreement, neck craned back. Blood pounding in his skull. He wasn't close. Not even after twenty minutes.

"Get up on the bed," he murmured. Merlin slid off, releasing Arthur's cock, gasping at the loss and emptiness.

Arthur relaxed into a sit, glad for it as the burning sensation in his muscles trailed away. He joined Merlin, straddled his knees, tangling their legs. Merlin pressed his hips up into him, opening himself back up with several fingers. "Lessgo," he mumbled, easing Arthur's cockhead in. Arthur let a small smirk tug his lips.

"Idiot," he said affectionately, rocking back into the delicious heat. Merlin leaned back, displaying himself fully. Arthur loved petting the dark patch of hair on him, how it spread across Merlin's chest. His nipples circled by black hairs. Arthur loved feeling them pebbled against his tongue, suckling and biting gently.

And he loved when Merlin keened, letting go and tearing at the sheets. He spurted onto himself, belly and chest heaving, and Arthur let the sight consume him, moaning and coming.

He could feel aftershocks deep inside Merlin, rubbing his sides soothingly.

Smiling bleary, Merlin opened his skinny arms, motioning for him. He smiled wider when Arthur inclined towards him, kissing him, kissing his jaw and under his puffy eye.

"You miss the heels, don't you?"

Arthur whispered into the side of Merlin's sweaty, warm face, voice raspy, "You were monstrously giant in them."

Merlin enfolded an arm around him, wriggling as Arthur's hand skimmed over his belly ring. He said, deviously, "Not the only part of me that's _monstrous_."

"You're awful."

"I'm _brilliant_."

 

*


End file.
